₪ David Pescod's Late Edition June 5, 2007
GOLDQUEST MINING (V-GQC) $0.355 -0.005
SILVERCREST MINES (V-SVL) $0.83 n/c
SELKIRK METALS (V-SLK) $1.10 -0.04
“Okay, so where is it?” we ask Eric Coffin of the Hard Rock Analyst. Brother Dave does a lot of international traveling in the course of the year, checking out junior mining situations on all continents, while Eric stays closer to home and watches the book work and results. Which makes a good team for the Hard Rock Analyst.
But what we’re after, is where the heck is this correction we’ve seen every year for the last five years in the junior mining sector? Sometimes it’s been vicious as we’ve seen almost 30% corrections and some years it has been relatively mild, with as little as 11%, but it seems every year, it’s there. Over the months we’ve been asking Eric and he’s been one of those suggesting that maybe it won’t be that bad, maybe 10% and today he suggests, he is not sure it’s going to happen.
He wouldn’t be surprised to see volumes go down a bit and suggests that “After the Memorial Day Weekend, there is going to be more people south of the border sharpen up their golfing game and maybe watching the market a little bit less” and he wouldn’t be surprised to see volumes shrink by as much as 20%...but as far as a correction...well.
“So what commodities do you like?” we ask Eric and he notes the poor performance of the supposedly precious metals silver and gold, which have been in correction mode for the last four to six months and seeing the majority of these stocks down 20%. He suggests that there are a lot of people bummed out by the performance of these precious metals, but as far as base metals, well he likes zinc. And while it’s not going to the moon, he suggests he is happy with the inventory numbers and expects the commodity to stay strong. Also staying at lofty levels he figures nickel looks good for some time as it’s going to be hard to find alternatives for this important metal used in construction and making of steel.
Which gets us to the important point, would you pick some stocks that are going to make people some money? He was one of the first on the Selkirk Metals story, so we are glad he sticks with that. He likes the logistics of the story of Ruddock Creek being so close to various facilities in southern B.C. and not far from a potential smelter. He wouldn’t be surprised to see the stock up to the $2.50 or $3.00 level on the potential for take-over down the road, although he suggests (thank goodness) that that’s part of a moving target, depending on additional underground and drilling results.
Other cheapies that he likes and two that have been hurt with the fall off in precious metals are GoldQuest Mining, for its Las Animas Project in the Dominican Republic with Goldfields. He suggests drilling has been slow, which has hurt reporting of results and hence lack of interest in the market.
Silvercrest Mines is a third favorite and he suggests that it is a lot closer to production than most people think. Metallurgical results should be in shortly and it might be the last key to seeing some important decisions made. Eric was a little surprised to see the lack of reaction to Silvercrest’s last bunch of drilling results, which he thought were quite decent, but then maybe that’s the current faith of the supposed precious metals sector. For right now, it’s “Moly-Madness” and “Uranium Euphoria”.
Eric and Dave should be at Joe Martin’s next big mining show, The World Gold, PGM and Diamond Investment Conference on June 17-18, 2007.
IMA EXPLORATION (V-IMR) $ 1.14 +0.38
AQUILINE RESOURCES (T-AQI) $10.20 +1.01
Navidad is probably one of the biggest/richest silver discoveries we’ve seen in this resource boom that’s now about six to seven years in existence. We’ve not only seen commodities flirt with new highs (such as silver and Navidad is mainly silver, but there are other credits) but it’s been discovered in a relatively mining-friendly country—Argentina. Right at the southern tip. Which is all the good news.
The bad news is that the debate continues as to who owns it. IMA Exploration did all the hard work, discovering it, drilling it and doing the resource work and then Aquiline Resources suggested it was their property all along and a judicial decision from British Columbia did give the property to Aquiline. Needless to say, IMA Exploration appealed.
It’s a very simple statement just released by IMA today: “IMA Exploration wishes to advise shareholders that the British Columbia Court of Appeal will deliver a judgment in the Navidad litigation on June 7, 2007 at 9:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.” Both stocks are up in anticipation of a decision handed down that will clear up the confusion and people are obviously making a few wagers on which way it’s going to go.
Needless to say, this decision is going to attract a lot of attention in the market, whichever way it goes. |
